michelle4973 Posted January 3, 2014 #1 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Still trying to decide, which would you recommend, priorities are more water time less land time, don't care as much for mud bath but want to snorkel and go back to ship via boat, any advice? Michelle & Frank Boston MA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sippican Posted January 3, 2014 #2 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Not exactly a "tour" but reportedly some of the best snorkeling in the area. Consider a day pass to Ti Kaye with Island Divers. It gets great reviews. http://www.tikaye.com/diving/island-divers-rates/ We missed it last cruise due to an injury. Our cruisemates went and raved about their day. We want a comfortable, uncrowded beach with good snorkeling and we are excited to try again in April. Please note, you will not see the Pitons from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pghsteelerfan Posted January 3, 2014 #3 Share Posted January 3, 2014 We were on Carnival Valor in May 2013 and did Spencer Ambrose's "Jalousie Beach Break" tour. He offers several tours but more beach/sea time is what we wanted so we chose this one and were not disappointed. We met at the assigned meeting time then took a speedboat directly to Jalousie Beach, which is the beach between the Pitons. We had four hours there to enjoy the beach and snorkeling and a nice buffet lunch was served right on the beach. On the ride back (same speedboat), Spencer gave us the "Sea Tour" with several stops at various places that he told us about and also to get pictures. One of the best tours we've had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbell21219 Posted January 3, 2014 #4 Share Posted January 3, 2014 (edited) Still trying to decide, which would you recommend, priorities are more water time less land time, don't care as much for mud bath but want to snorkel and go back to ship via boat, any advice? Michelle & Frank Boston MA Funny you ask about this. I just emailed Spencer Ambrose about putting a tour together that mixes two of his tours. It combines the Around the island tour which is more of a Atlantic Side land tour, that skips the Volcano and Mud Baths because all the volcano is, is a smelly hole in the ground and mud baths just look disgusting lol. So we asked him for the Atlantic side of the Island then to Jalouise Beach to snorkle for awhile then back to the cruise ship by boat. http://spencerambrose.com Here is his website. I will get back to you and see what he tells me about putting together these options. Edited January 3, 2014 by cbell21219 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allentownahoy Posted January 4, 2014 #5 Share Posted January 4, 2014 I have never been on a speedboat before. Is it a very bumpy ride? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pghsteelerfan Posted January 4, 2014 #6 Share Posted January 4, 2014 I have never been on a speedboat before. Is it a very bumpy ride? There were parts of the ride that it got a little bumpy but nothing scary or uncomfortable like you'll feel like you're going to get thrown. I really enjoyed the ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allentownahoy Posted January 5, 2014 #7 Share Posted January 5, 2014 There were parts of the ride that it got a little bumpy but nothing scary or uncomfortable like you'll feel like you're going to get thrown. I really enjoyed the ride. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjrpar Posted January 6, 2014 #8 Share Posted January 6, 2014 We were in St.Lucia last year on a very busy port day. Spencer told us that he had 160 people booked for tours that day, a record for him. Well, it turned out to be a disaster as soon as everyone arrived at the beach at about 1:00pm. I won't go into details but beware of Spencer, he will book beyond his capability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sippican Posted January 7, 2014 #9 Share Posted January 7, 2014 We were in St.Lucia last year on a very busy port day. Spencer told us that he had 160 people booked for tours that day, a record for him. Well, it turned out to be a disaster as soon as everyone arrived at the beach at about 1:00pm. I won't go into details but beware of Spencer, he will book beyond his capability. This seems to be a trend with him (and the reason we decided to not take one of his tours). During the last couple of years there have been a number of posts regarding safety concerns, confusion at the dock, overcrowded boats, incompetent staff, time issues, not enough food and loungers, etc. when he has over extended himself. Too bad, because otherwise his customers seem to really enjoy the tours with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pghsteelerfan Posted January 7, 2014 #10 Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) When we were on Spencer's "Jalousie Beach Break" tour last May, this was not the case. Before we booked with him, I'd seen the "negatives" but we went with Spencer anyway because of the many positive reviews and also reading about the day spent on his tours in actual reviews done by others. When we met Spencer that morning, he was very organized and had separate lists on a clipboard for each of the tours he offered. On each tour, he had a list of the people who were signed up. When we checked in with him he asked which of his tours (Jalousie Beach Break), and then gave him our names. He also collected payment right then, checked off our names as "paid" and apologized. We always expect to pay first so that was not a problem and we told him so. He mentioned that he'd gotten some unfavorable reviews recently due to confusion and mentioned that some of that confusion was due to collecting the payment. He said they were collecting payment at the beach, when all tours were together, but that it caused confusion and people were not happy. He also mentioned a tour running late because someone signed up for a particular tour showed up about a half hour late resulting in that particular tour running late and ending up with some confusion and others who were there on time were not happy because their plans were changed some by the few who showed up late. He told all of us that from now on if people signed up didn't arrive by a certain time, we were leaving without them as he was not going to hold up a whole group to wait on a few (everyone in our group showed up timely). He said he takes every review to heart, even the negative. He said if he gets negative reviews on something that he can control/change, he will try to make adjustments. One of the adjustments was collecting all payments at the beginning of the tour and only allowing a wait time of 10 - 15 minutes. Once we paid we were put in separate groups by tours. Our day with Spencer ran like clockwork, was very organized, we learned a lot about St. Lucia, and we had fun, a lot of fun. One of the things we all really appreciated was that on the speedboat ride back to the ship was that Spencer stopped at several areas and told us about them. He also made sure that everyone of us got the pictures that we wanted, even turning the boat so that those on the other side could get pictures of the scenery (like the Pitons). If we ever get back to St. Lucia, I will not hesitate to book with Spencer again. Edited January 7, 2014 by pghsteelerfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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